The second annual Page Fine Art Festival comes to John C. Page Memorial Park this Saturday, April 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The festival will feature around 40 artist booths, as well as food vendors, a Native hoop dance performance at 11 a.m. and live music at 1 p.m.  

The festival kicks off this Friday with the Best in Show Art Event at Wahweap Marina from 6-9 p.m. At that event, each artist will display one of their own artworks, and each person who buys a ticket to attend will be able to vote for the best art. Ticketholders will also have the opportunity to chat with the artists, including this year’s premiere artist, Daniel Josley.

Josley is a Diné artist based in Shonto on the Navajo Nation, who specializes in murals and canvas paintings. He is perhaps most well-known for his artwork depicting horned toads, which in Navajo culture represent wisdom, knowledge and protection. 

Josley said he was proud to be chosen as the premiere artist for the Page Fine Art Festival, not only because of his art but also because of where he is from, who he is and what he represents.

“I really believe that as an artist, we’re all trying to get our mind and spirit out there. If this is a way to do it, then my art will speak louder than my words,” Josley told the Chronicle. “If I can climb up the ladder to spread the word about the horned toads and the stories and the relations that we have through my Navajo culture, then I will take that first step. I really appreciate the Page Fine Art Festival for choosing me to represent that.” 

Art has always come naturally to Josley, who remembers doing sketches throughout his childhood and experimenting with pastels and paints in high school. He has always been interested in gathering whatever information he could about art, art history, and the use of materials like acrylic and oil paints.

However, his interest in art was put on the backburner when he left the Navajo Nation after school in pursuit of work in places like Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. He describes that period of his life as being far away from home and “in the system, another father paying his bills with a normal job.” 

It wasn’t until he was working in North Dakota and got laid off that he felt compelled to get back to making art. 

“One day I just picked up a pencil and paper and I sat at the kitchen table and started sketching. That sketch turned into a portrait of my grandfather, John Josley, and I kind of lost myself in what I was doing. I forgot about struggle, the bills, obligations,” he said. 

“I found myself hypnotized in what I was doing and so I shared it on social media, and several months later just started paying the rent with my art. I figured, why not move home back to the motherland in Shonto and continue doing what I’m doing?”

He returned home in 2015, a move that gave him a whole different perspective on life. 

“Coming home was definitely an eye-opener for me. It was like I was finally awake when I came home. I looked at everything different – my family, the canyons, the trees, the community. I wanted to make a difference,” he said.

Just how to make that difference wasn’t immediately clear. At that point, Josley was not yet painting horned toads, instead focusing on portraits, landscapes and mixed-media art as he tried to find his own style and technique through trial-and-error. He was also trying to figure out things for himself and for his family – including his wife, five kids and daughter-in-law.

It wasn’t until after Josley’s grandfather passed on that he started painting horned toads. He was raised by his grandparents, and through them found much of the wisdom, knowledge and protection that horned toads represent in his culture.  

His grandfather used to tell him stories about the horned toad, which also represents family relations, as well as being a symbol of good luck. 

“When I started painting my first still life image of a horned toad, it took me back to my childhood. I never really had that perspective until remembering what my grandfather used to teach me. The horned toad helped me do that, helped bring me back and give me a different perspective,” Josley said.

“In doing so, I started to create a character, which was my grandfather, and I just started to hold different childhood memory of me and the canyons and school, first experiences and travelling, as a horned toad, a grandfather horned toad. So now I do that. I travel here and there, and a lot of people can relate to what I’m doing.” 

So far, Josley has completed nearly 60 murals across the Navajo Nation – in Shonto, Tuba City, Black Mesa, Kayenta and elsewhere – as well as off the reservation, in towns ranging from Page to Farmington, New Mexico.  

For Josley, painting murals is “a little more addicting” than working on canvas. It can also be unpredictable, with the final image dependent not only on his imagination and skill, but also on factors like the location, the weather, the structure, whether it’s indoor or outdoor, and obstacles on the wall such as piping, windows and doors. It all contributes to the “flow” of the finished mural. 

“It’s pretty interesting. Plus, at the same time there’s a lot of traffic that comes through at different times, and there’s that interaction” with the public that does not occur while working alone at home or in a studio.  

Josley believes that murals can enhance public spaces, an idea that takes him back to one of his first murals in Shonto.

“When I came back home to my community here in Shonto, I just saw a lot of profanity and spraypainted graffiti on the walls, and I wanted to change that or cover it up,” he said. 

“I thought maybe this was a free canvas for me to explore my ideas on. So, contributing to the community with mural art has really made a large impact on the surrounding families in the area, as far as their kids getting on the bus and driving by these murals every day. It’s inspirational, and I believe it can benefit a community for the future.”

One of his Shonto murals, titled “Horned Toad and Lightning God,” has also inspired him to start working on a children’s book – which will be published in both English and Navajo languages – about a modern-day horned toad who walks on two legs and travels to different communities telling his own story as well as older traditional tales. It’s a work in progress with no firm completion date. 

“I’m not painting every day. I do things around the house, I go wood hauling, I travel at certain times to schools to give presentations and demonstrations, and to work on murals. It’s a slow project for me, but it’s something that I’m building toward,” Josley said.

He described his efforts to make a living from art and support his family as a “gamble” and an “everyday hustle,” but he’s determined to persist through the hard times – which is why he has named his personal website Persistence in Arts (www.persistenceinarts.com).

“I’ve been telling people time and time again – I think the best of us comes out when we’re going through the hard times. I’ve been down to my last 20 bucks before, and those are the times when my original artwork comes out. They’re because I need to pay the bills or I need to get food or I need to get gas money to travel,” Josley said. “So, appreciate the hard times. They’re stepping stones. That’s all the failures we have, and it’s good to embrace those. It makes you stronger.” 

He also encouraged new and aspiring artists to “just get out there and do it” rather than thinking too much about making art. 

“Most of my murals that I’ve done, they weren’t because I was planning things out, they were because I had an idea. As an artist, if you have a good idea, it’s hard to get that out of your head before you can move on to the next project,” he said. “So that’s what got me started in the first place. Just getting out there and doing it myself. There’s no time and day for art.”

Lynn Cormier, director of community and recreation services for the City of Page, said she was particularly excited about this year’s festival because Josley has been instrumental in invigorating more artists on the Navajo Nation to participate in the event. 

She said it was extremely important to showcase local Native American artists, not only because they are neighbors to Page but also because they have their own stories to tell through their contemporary artwork.   

When it comes to Native art, Cormier said, “We often think of kachina dolls and jewelry and the old pottery, but there’s some pretty contemporary and modern styles that those who have signed up for the festival have given a twist to really show their culture and how they feel they fall into today’s modern world. And I think that that voice needs to be heard. So, we’re excited to have them.”

Cormier said there will also be greater participation from local high school students this year, with as many as 50 participating in the festival. 

“We’re excited to have the high school kids because it’s nice to have something that you can bring the community into,” she said, adding that as far as students go, the Best in Show event will be limited to high-school seniors. “This is something that they can build toward each year, and knowing that in senior year, if they stick with it, they can be part of the Best in Show event.” 

A limited number of tickets are available for the Best in Show Art Event at Wahweap Marina on April 14. Tickets are $25 per person or $45 per couple and can be purchased at City Hall or online at events.cityofpage.org/page-fine-art-festival/.